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2nd Obsession - Historical Study

My Second Obsession - Historical Study

Ever since my school days I have had an interest in military history. In many ways my interest, some would say obsession, with wargaming is secondary to my love of history.My first interest was in the American Civil War and I have a large library of Civil War books, but as time passed my interests broadened to encompass much of the nineteenth century, but specifically the Franco-Prussian and Austro-Prussian wars, with more than a passing interest in the Crimean and Franco-Austrian Wars.In 1992 my interests in the Franco-Prussian War saw me commence work on a study of the Battle of Spicheren, fought on 6 August, 1870. I struggled with this work because of a lack of access to good reference collections here in New Zealand, and all work ceased when my computer, with all my work on it, was stolen in 1997. The project languished when I married and changed careers, but was given fresh life when on a visit to France in 2005 I purchased some second hand books. I also discovered that since I had put the project on hold there had been a rapid expansion of the number of digitised books available on the internet. Suddenly all the works that had been unavailable to me in the early 1990s, were accessible. Between 2006 and 2012 my research raced along and the small work on Spicheren expanded into a study of the opening battles - Wissembourg, Spicheren and Froeschwiller. By mid-2012 the work was completed and ready for proof reading. That is where the project stands today. The expected publication date is sometime in 2016.

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About Me

I have been involved in historical wargaming since 1972, co-founding the Auckland Wargaming Club in 1974 and was for 15 years involved in the "industry" in a business that eventually became Battlefront Miniatures.
My main focus is on the mid-19th Century and I now collect in only two scales: 28mm for all land based gaming and 1:600 for mid-19th century naval gaming.
My philosophy for gaming is:
- Play games with people whose company I enjoy
- The game must be true to the period
- The games must be visually attractive – both the armies and terrain
- The end result doesn’t matter - games must be fun.